Now that I am retired having been many years a magistrate with a long awareness of the declining freedoms enjoyed by the ordinary citizen and a corresponding fear of the big brother state`s ever increasing encroachment on civil liberties I hope that my personal observations within these general parameters will be of interest to those with an open mind. Having been blogging with this title for many years against the rules of the Ministry of Justice my new found freedom should allow me to be less inhibited in these observations.

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Friday, 7 April 2017

COURT SALES: A LESSON FOR BREXIT

As a long time Brexiteer I welcomed last year`s result. Having read of various members of the trio charged with negotiating our exit and Theresa May`s approach to the situation generally I`m beginning to wonder if we need to import a dealmaker to advise these politicians: after all being an elected M.P. requires many different skills but being able to make £2 from a £1 pound investment isn`t one of them. Take the sale of hundreds of magistrates` court buildings in the last five or six years. Under various pieces of legislation about which I had no knowledge prior to today empty buildings are required to be sold within three years of closure. Parliamentary Written question - 208529 in 2014 provides this information. I suppose the time limit is to ensure that such matters are not left on the back burner but on the other hand it can mean that property is being sold into a buyer`s market. Inheritors coming into possession of a deceased relative`s house often have to decide, assuming they don`t need immediate cash, if and when to sell. Surely the government as lender of last resort could do likewise. As an example former Bridgewater Magistrates` Court was sold two years ago for just £186,000. Today it is for sale for £450,000 in exactly the same unaltered state as when it closed. Why on earth did nobody in the property department at the MOJ take a view on the market? If I were being paid as a professional researcher which I`m not, I`m almost certain many more such examples could be found. It`s a similar cadre of civil servants who will be negotiating our exit deal. To have any chance of satisfaction successful professional deal makers must be brought to the table to advise politicians. We don`t need or want a Trump as P.M. but we do have a few billionaire business people with the skills required. Get on the phone Mrs May.

3 comments:

I have been wondering exactly the same thing myself. And the same goes for the NHS where I am a regular patient. They need managers from one of the supermarkets to organise the way patients get into the hospital, get their treatment then get out again. In simple terms it means that the spaces in the car park are vacated so others can use them and so on. Supermarkets want you to arrive, shop and then depart for the same reasons. NHS and doctors don't understand that. The indivisual nurses are wondeful but even they don't understand what I am talking about. Sorry - a little off your topic but even me, with my training with major multinationals, could have struck better deals for HMCTS than has currently been the case. Happy to talk off camera if anyone wants a good deal maker!

Further to your recent comment about the NHS being unable to manage projects. I currently work in the NHS and have previously had a long career in Manufacturing as Project Engineer. (Manufacturing has disappeared from the UK – so I changed direction).

A recent project came up implementing a new Electronic Patient Record system. I thought about whether I wanted to be involved in this as I have had long experience in implementing projects, also I already knew all of the people involved.

After a fairly short thought I decided not to put my name forward. They recruited other people and these poor souls are currently pulling their hair out at the almost daily change in direction, the lack of understanding from senior managers of what is going on, and the total dismissal of a project plan from everyone ..